Bala Kamallakharan

Investor, Startup Coach, and Entrepreneurin Reykjavík, Iceland

Bala Kamallakharan is the Founder of Startup Iceland, a grassroots initiative to build sustainable startup ecosystems in Iceland. Bala is also Co-Founder of Dattaca LabsandIceland Venture Studio. Bala has served as Executive Board Member in Guide to Iceland and TravelShift. Bala invested, mentored and was the Chairman of the Board at CLARA (Resonata), the Icelandic Community Analytics company which was acquired by Jive Software in 2013. CLARA was the first Icelandic company to be acquired into Silicon Valley. Bala has done various early stage investments like Buuteeq (acquired by Priceline.com NASDAQ:PCLN), GreenQloud (acquired by NetApp NASDAQ:NTAP).

Before venturing into being an Investor and Entrepreneur, Bala was with Glitnir Bank’s executive team. He was part of the Strategic Growth team focusing on strategic priorities of the bank, which included mergers & acquisitions, business development and strategy formulation. Bala played many leadership roles within the bank.

Prior to joining Glitnir, Bala was with Cap Gemini in the US, formerly Ernst & Young Management Consulting. He worked on strategy development and deployment of projects for Fortune 500 companies. Bala has a management degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. He also holds a Masters degree in Economics and a second Masters degree in Information Systems & Decision Science from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA. Bala passed the PhD qualifying examination in Economics. Bala is a member of the Reykjavik Rotary International Club.